Zeitgeist Drei

I really didn't have anything to fear or hide (the cross gave me a moment of anxiety) but being innocent was no guarantee of freedom in East Germany. I peered out the window and saw two Grepos being led down the track by the largest German Shepherd I have ever seen. There was a lot of shouting in German and well armed troopers in battle dress didn't even try to be subtle as they went from compartment to compartment in that slow,studied and very Communist way.

A peremptory knock on my already open compartment and I was facing a more formally uniformed officer and a German rail conductor.

"Ihre Papiere bitte"

I had to suppress a smile here. Was this fella for real? This would have been funny if it wasn't my passport I was handing over. The deliberately Prussian uniform complete with jackboots and leather gloves put me in mind of Lt. Gruber (and his little tank) from 'Allo 'Allo. Now in those days there was no such thing as a casual backpacking trip around Eastern Europe. All arrangements had to be made well in advance and all sorts of bureaucracy placated. It was incredibly tedious and deliberately made that way so as to discourage any deviation from approved tours and facilities. Independence ,in thought and travel,was a punishable offence and you only had to get a glimpse of the border fortifications to tell you that. They were designed to keep people in. Not out.

Fortunately I was arriving in the DDR from a "Fraternal Socialist Republic" and had arranged for a three day transit visa well in advance. The questions that followed were the usual ones asked at any point of entry. Duration,purpose and point of origin and so on. Lt.Gruber already had the answers my visa application but he was trying to see if I'd give a different answer. Some class of an NCO entered the compartment and replaced the railway fella. He asked me to open my rucksack for a brief inspection. They were clearly bored but went through the motions anyway. Once this was done ( contents of rucksack were determined to be non-threatening) the officer took my passport and left for some serious rubber stamping. This was one of those moments. Those few,passport less minutes stretched out long and long.

It wasn't widely known at the time but the passport and visa jockeys all worked for the Stasi. So even though they wore Border Guard uniforms they were part of something far more sophisticated and menacing. At least the Grepos looked like a pack of bastards. A case of Lt.Gruber morphing into a far more sinister and effective Herr Flick as it were. I'm glad I didn't know. I was scared enough.